CreateSpace Now Offer Expanded Distribution for Free

CreateSpace has announced that it is waiving the fee charged to authors who enrol books in its Expanded Distribution program. The Amazon-owned self-publishing platform posted the news to its website yesterday and many authors with CreateSpace accounts have reported receiving the following email:

Hello XXXX XXXXXX,

We’re excited to announce Expanded Distribution is now free!

You recently purchased the Expanded Distribution for one or more of your books within the past six weeks. As a courtesy, we’d like to issue you a refund of $25 for each book recently enabled through Expanded Distribution.

Your Expanded Distribution and other channel selections for your book will not be affected by this change.

Your refund should be processed within ten business days or less. It will appear as a credit on your next credit card or banking statement within the next three weeks. Multiple refunds will be processed and appear as individual refunds in your account.

If you have already received a refund for this purchase, you will not be refunded twice. If the card used for this purchase has expired or been canceled since your purchase, we will mail you a check for this refund and send a confirmation message once mailed.

If you have any questions about this refund, please contact your CreateSpace team by logging into your account, clicking “Contact Support,” selecting “Distribution” and then “Expanded Distribution.” You can then send us an email, including “My EDC Refund” in the subject line, or click “Call me” so that we can call you now or in five minutes.

We encourage you to enable all of your eligible books in our free Expanded Distribution Channels to reach a wider audience and increase your discoverability.

Kind Regards,

The CreateSpace Team

Some CreateSpace authors have also reported receiving refunds for books they paid to have included in the Expanded Distribution over recent weeks. As the above email communication confirms, CS are refunding fees to authors who enrolled in the program over the last six weeks. The news will be welcomed by many CS authors and this move follows previous reductions of the fee, originally $35, reduced to $25.

The decision by CS to offer Expanded Distribution for free looks like a direct response to the launch of IngramSpark in July. Ironically, CS uses Ingram’s print-on-demand and fulfilment company Lightning Source (LSI) for its Expanded Distribution program.

The latest move by CS leaves another competitor, Lulu, who still charge for this service, in a rather tricky position and it will be interesting to see if there is a strategic reaction from the North Carolina-based self-publishing platform.

Authors who are considering opting into the free CS Expanded Distribution program should note that it is predominantly aimed at online resellers and is not going to dramatically increase chances of gaining access to brick and mortar stores. There is also a minimum list price in the program for enrolled books and distribution to library channels is not included for books without a registered CS ISBN.

Mick Rooney – Publishing Consultant

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